Kaituna!

The Kaituna!  What a rafting experience!  Yes, it’s the highest waterfall that the majority of rafts go over, but it’s also a relatively safe river!  We started our day by leaving our very nice hostel and driving around Lake Rotorua to the falls.  There we hopped on a raft and rafted through this very narrow, amazing gorge with vegetation everywhere.  The rocks are nice and smooth – unlike the Taylor – and the water is pretty warm – AGAIN – unlike the Taylor.  It’s a short trip, but a very memorable one as there are many “waterfalls”!  The biggest is 21 meters high!  It’s narrow and a straight drop right down.  Unfortunately, I was jinxed by having to be the leaf reader in the boat to tell us if we’d make it safely or flip.  I ended up going out of the boat when we hit bottom and got tossed around a bit.  The rest of the people in the boat managed to stay in.  It was still a blast and we went over more falls.  Afterwards, we hiked to the lookouts to see the falls from the shore.

After the raft trip, we headed back to Rotorua to walk amongst the Redwoods.  We then went to a public park – right in town – where there are mud pots, boiling water, and steam!  AMAZING!  Then the gorgeous drive to Waitomo where we’ll be black water rafting (tubing) in caves tomorrow and where we’ll get to see the glowworms.  We’ve got our hostel all booked for the next two nights and with any luck, will head down after our adventure to do the Tongoriro Crossing – MORDOR!!!

No rest for the weary….